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The Cardinals have had their offensive issues. The statistics say they could benefit Sunday by playing the Bills.

The Bills have given up more than 1,200 yards the past two games against the Patriots and 49ers. The 49ers became the first team ever to pass for 300 yards and rush for 300 yards in a single game. “It stinks right now,” defensive tackle Kyle Williams told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. “We stink. We have stunk the past two weeks.” The Bills are allowing almost 172 rushing yards a game. The Cardinals are only rushing for 63 yards a game, and will rely on three running backs who won’t supposed to be a major part of the equation.

Add into the equation the Bills are playing on the road — in a place where the Cardinals have been very successful against AFC teams — and the Cards have some things in their favor.

Obviously, the Cardinals can’t take anything for granted. They have struggled to protect quarterback Kevin Kolb (17 sacks the past two games) but in both the last two games there were openings to win regardless. “I’m sure we’ll both play with chips on our shoulder, but for us it’s all about winning,” Kolb said. “I don’t care if it’s 6-3 or 60-53. I really don’t care. At this point in my career, I want to win football games, regardless of how it looks.”

Wherever the Cardinals are mentally — and at 4-1, it sure seems OK to me, despite all the things said about this team following the loss to the Rams — it’s a better place than the Bills. It is Buffalo which has a bigger hurdle to clear in that regard, especially after looking at the beatdowns of the last two games and hearing coach Chan Gailey talk about how his team has to overcome the “hurt.”

“I mean your soul is hurt,” Gailey said. “You hurt in your heart. You hurt in your brain. You hurt everywhere when you do not play well.”

22 Responses
to “Getting offensive against the Bills”

I think it should be a good game. both teams are playing coming off losses. The offensive line needs to pull together as a unit and keep kolb of the grass as well as open a hole here and there for our quick running backs do what they do best. Run. We have seen promise from all the backs listed for Sunday. On paper yes the cardinals look to have the edge. But what happens on the field is what matters. That paper can easily be tossed in the garbage if our performance lacks. Its definitely going to be a plus having dockett back on the field more. He has been a monster getting into the backfield this year. not always coming up with a play but getting back there that fast can disrupt a lot of things. allowing another player to make a play for a loss or short gain or force that incomplete pass or INT.
GO CARDS
TIME TO RISE UP RED SEA AND SHOW OUR TEAM WE CARE!

pitch forks after 1 loss? Yes the oline needs work but the loss on thursday to the rams pure and simple came from the dropped passes. If those were caught the cards would be 5-0. What would the haters say then? This team is doing great, a little work there and a little fine tunning to that and the cards cab easily go into playoffs with 4-5 losses on the season. This team is great, its not cut and dry winning its a very excitting way to win. Come on Powell!! break in sunday and run right down the bills middle, i thought after pre you would be number 2 back behind Beanie, this guy has what it takes!! Defense come on, leave the candy at home this Sunday game, Niners are stealing your Tittle as NFC best D… URRRRGH… I hate d Niners…

Nothin’ like a l’il home cookin’. A fast start would help per podcast. If we get a surprise negative play early, we’ll see what our boys got inside…just gotta be ready for all possibilities… go Cards. Powell may surprise, as may OL…

Darren,
This is a game for our vaunted defense to take over. Last week the Bills scored 3 points @ SF. Now the Bills have been on the road another week so let’s figure maybe 10 points given up.
The offense has problems that are very easily identified- average QB, rookie tackles, injured running backs and bad OC.
On the other hand, we have a great DC, fairly healthy unit, no rookies and yet opponents have been able to move the ball. The fact of the matter is, our defense shows me the following:
1) Novice DC
2) the failure of Dan Williams to develop into a good NT in his 3rd year has killed any hope of the 3-4 succeeding. .Whatever happened to Carter
3) a fast but undersized inside linebacker in Washington who is very good at blitzing and pursuit but bad at rush defense.
4) defensive backs who are bad against the pass.
5) Campbell – very good at blocking FGs and batting down passes but only average at rushing the passer.
6) Dockett- when healthy, a guy playing out of position in the 3-4
7) Failure of Rashad Johnson to displace AW speaks volume about the talent of the secondary back-ups.
8) Schofield seems to have hit a wall in his development
9) Lenon- just an average player but, at least he seems to know what he’s doing
10) Sam Acho is only guy being used correclty. He’s a keeper along with PP as long as PP realizes he’s a db first and a punt returner second. .

You are insane. Just plain crazy. All your points on the “defense” are dumb.

1) A lot of the yards gained on our D have been for garbage yards. Opposing teams needed to get in the endzone, so they get big yards, but not score.
2) Miama’s game was focused on stopping the run. They wanted the ROOKIE QB to win the game. He played outstanding, like any QB on any given Sunday can due if the opponent is Focused on the ground attack.
3) A novice DC??? The Cards will be LUCKY to even have him next year. He might be a head coach somewhere.
4) When Dockett’s healthy!?!?!? He’s missed ONLY TWO GAMES in NINE years!!! I think your “standards” are a tad high there.
5) Any defense would want Campbell on their team. Period, end of story. Same thing for Adrian Wilson.

Like I said, you are just plain crazy. You might be a fan of the Cardinals, but you remind of a Kansas City Chief fan that’s CHEERING when their starting QB is hurt and removed from play. Absolutely disgusting… But, have a great day regardless!!!

Besides, given that success at QB relies on his BRAIN; kevin can’t be successful. Skelton can.

It’s all about the QB. In this “era” of QB’s coming out of college and stepping into NFL success, realize John Skelton is going to take the 3 years he needs to develop. Look to the 4th yr. to see what you’ve really got (a really good starting NFL QB). kolb, we should be over you– 3 pts? 3? No, we’ve got a D that will allow skelton to do all the bad stuff he does, and then corrects it in the end.

GeorgieBird getting rough on the Defense. I would disagree with you on a few points, Horton does know what he is doing. Campbell and Dockett are better than what you think. Our defensive backs are young, still learning, wouldn’t say bad against the pass. I do agree with you on Acho. Schofield appears to have flatten out and Rashad Johnson hasn’t lived up to the Card’s hope and may not be back next year. Your clearly wrong with Washington, he is good in both phases of pass and rush. Remember, the Cards defense doesn’t have as many high picks on it as SF and it takes a few years playing together in the 3-4 to be dominate..but I see good things they just need to keep Horton and add a few pieces like some more pass rush to be in the top 3 of the league..

It’s not “pitchforks” after one game. The Dolphins had our number as well on both sides of the ball and showed the Rams how to “get er’ done” against the Cardinals. While the Bills probably don’t have the firepower on defense to exploit our shortcomings as well, the offensive line and defensive back issues will remain and will keep us out of a playoff spot over the long haul if they are not addressed. I still think we could trade either Kolb or Skelton plus a high draft pick for a premium offensive lineman (NOT a running back!). Neither Kolb nor Skelton will function at a very high level without a decent running game and I see the blame as totally on the O-Line, not the injuries at running back.

Darren,
I guess we think alike. This article sounds a lot like what I wrote yesterday. 🙂

Georgiebird,
Wow, blasting the Defense.

Williams has played well this year.Look closely, most of the running has come when the cards go to their 2 down lineman package.

D Washington, in the same way that another fast, hard hitting LB name Ray Lewis, needs to stay “Clean” to be effective. Much in the same way that Lewis had a drop off when they played a year without big guys in front of him, Washington isnt going to blow up guards. So, when teams run at our 2 down lineman set, yes D Wash might struggle. But, when Williams is in in our traditional 3-4, he plays the run much better.

Our defensive backs have given up some big plays. That is going to happen in a blitzing style of defense. I blame the blitzers not getting to the QB. You cant allow a QB a clean look at man coverage time after time.

The Campbell and Dockett comments are just reaching. Come on man.

Johnson hasnt overtaken Wilson, because Wilson is pretty damn good.

Lenon is the soul of this defense and is underrated. No, he isn’t Lance Briggs, but he gets the job done.

As for Schofield, I felt we needed an upgrade at OLB in the offseason. I think he is an average guy who, like Lenon, gets the job done.

But, what puts it all together is an excellent coach who shut down Brady and Vick on back to back weeks. That really is where you lost me. Horton has come up wth very good schemes.

the words from this post I agree wih the most are “The Cardinals can’t take anything for granted.” Absolutely correct. Despite a 4-1 record, they aren’t good enough to take ANYONE for granted. After being dominated by a Rams team that it appeared they took for granted, I want to see focus, determination, and anger this week.

And one more thing – RUN THE DAMN BALL. Unless the Bills somehow take a very quick 21-0 lead, you have EVERY reason possible to run the ball from start to finish against this team. I swear, if I see them passing on 3 out of every 4 plays in this game – and our QB getting killed again in the process – I will blow a friggin gasket.

With the NFC West as tight as it is and our schedule over the next month, we need this win. And if we can’t beat the Bills at home…

I completely agree with you that we need to run the ball more. I don’t know if we took the Rams for granted though. I think it had more to do with not enough planning for offense. Our D played really good, only 2 bad pass plays that came back to bite us in the butt. You won’t be the only one to blow a gasket either, I’ll be freaking yelling f-bombs all night long too. I totally agree with your last statement, if we don’t win at home, against the Bills, then … (sigh)

There are always teams that are hurting at QB due to injuries before the trade deadline. Usually desperate lower echelon teams or teams making a playoff run needing to get squared away at the number 2 spot. Throwing in a high draft pick seals the deal. I don’t think it really matters which one we trade as we are good with Lindley at #2 and can easily re-sign Bartel at #3 but we are desperate on the O-Line situation.

John the draft guy — exactly. I keep seeing people talk about giving up a receiver “other than Fitz/Roberts,” or giving up one of our two QB’s — neither of whom was good enough to really “win” our QB competition (Skelton more or less backed into the starting job because Kolb was worse). Now, I like Kolb and am very glad he’s turned it around, but not many teams are going to take him in a trade given his contract. (See: Matt Leinart, whom we were unable to trade and ultimately just released when we couldn’t get anything for him.) And regardless of all the Skelton lovers on this site, the fact remains that at this time he is either (a) a backup QB, or (b) a poor version of a starting QB, which means he solves no one’s QB problem if they have one.

Even if Kolb and Skelton were solid, Beanie was healthy and Doucet was desired, I cant see anyway shape or form someone giving up a quality OLineman.

Cert 33, I get adding a high pick in the trade to get that lineman, but I still dont see us getting anything but a journeyman in return. If you had a quality OT, would you trade him?

Whether you like it or not, our Oline tackles are set. Next year, you will have Levi at LT and Massie at RT. They gave Levi the money and drafted Massie with the purpose of him taking over at some point at RT. He ended up coming in sooner than later due to injuries.
The two guards arent going anywhere either. They both have healthy contracts. I could see them drafting someone to challenge at guard in next years draft. But dont expect a first round olineman.

This team has a history with the oline. Russ Grimm will be expected to win with the group he has.

I think Kolb needs to do a better job getting the ball out and reading the defense, the running backs need to do a better job at hitting the hole and not bouncing everything. And yes, the oline needs to do a better job openning holes and protecting.

Nate Potter is a wildcard. I know Potter is athletic but needs bulk and strength. Nothing an offseason cant take care of.
I said Massie looked more like a guard to me back in preseason.
So there is an outside shot that Potter takes over at LT, Levi goes to RT and Massie moves to RG. That would give us a very powerful right side to run behind. and a left side athletic, who can pull on runs and protect against speed rushers.

I don’t think think Kolb nor Skelton are going to have a lot of success the remainder of this season without being able to run play action off a decent running game. I do think that Kolb has turned it around somewhat in that he is showing more skill in moving the chains and resting the defense than Skelton ever could but the sad fact is that the O-Line is not getting it done on running plays against above average defenses. There are way too many negative yardage running plays. An embarassing amount actually. This, of course, leads directly to 17 sacks in two games and a lack of first downs to rest our most capable defense that keeps us “in” the game.

Does anyone think that Matt Schuab is a great Quarterback? Listen the Texans built their team around Schuab it has taken time but they are doing it! People just relax just because the team is not going undefeated through out the season dont give up on the Cards just be patient its comin’!!!!

Actually, and I hate to say it, I don’t really think we took the Rams for granted, either. I think the Rams are just flat-out better than I thought they were and they are typical of what the NFC West is this year – much improved teams because of a defense that can just plain get nasty and dominate when it wants to. They sure turned it loose on the Cardinals. I HATE when the Cardinals beat anyone and people look at it as the other team just having an off weeek, or having injuries, being on a short week, etc. So, I am not gonna turn around and do that to the Rams. They were the better team that night. Period.